A
smooth World Cup event depends on an equally smooth sheet of ice.
It usually takes a minimum of five days to adequately prepare a
frozen surface to meet the standards for an international short-track
speedskating competition. Four buildings and grounds employees managed
to accomplish the task in just 48 hours on the heels of an NMU hockey
game and a junior hockey tourney. Despite the rush, their efforts
reaped two world records and numerous compliments from athletes,
coaches and officials.

You
may see Bret Zorza, Dave Klumb, Rick Schwemin (pictured
from left) and Cheryl Perroud (not pictured)
driving the Zamboni to resurface between hockey periods. But they
spend most of their time working behind the scenes to prepare and
maintain the ice for university, community and USOEC use. After
the Wildcats hosted Michigan Tech Friday, Oct. 17, and junior hockey
action wrapped up that Sunday afternoon, the crew embarked on a
quick turnaround. They had to get the ice ready for the international
speedskaters to begin practicing on Tuesday, in advance of the weekend
competition.

“We
had to shave the ice down real low to about one-half inch,” said
Schwemin. “We couldn’t totally get rid of the hockey lines so we
had to hand-paint over them in white and then spray the rest of
the surface white as we built the ice back up again. The job is
a lot easier if you totally remove the ice and start from square
one, but we couldn’t do that because of hockey. It was stressful,
but we were positive we could get it done, even in the short time
we had.”

The
employees also had to remove the plexiglass from the boards surrounding
the rink and use an edging machine on the outer fringe of the ice.

Klumb
said that the International Skating Union (ISU) official in charge
of the ice for all six World Cup short-track speedskating events
talked with the crew and explained the standards before the event.
He also monitored surface conditions throughout the competition.

“He
checked the ice depth and temperature,” Klumb added. “One of the
hardest parts for me was that we had to paint two black, one-centimeter
lines with a white line in the center for the finish. The finish
camera reflects off those lines so it was very important. But it
was hard to do because they were so thin and had to be so exact.
I had to paint them by hand.”

The
crew’s work on the oval impressed ISU and U.S. Speedskating representatives.
Canadian skaters Emalie Goulet-Nadon and Eric Bedard praised the
conditions during a post-race news conference.

“I
felt confident all weekend because the ice was so good,” said Goulet-Nadon.
Bedard added: “The ice was amazing. There were two world records
set this weekend and that doesn’t happen too often. Also, there
were maybe five falls in this competition. That isn’t many at all,
so you know the ice was good quality.”

Among
the four members of the crew, Zorza is the rookie. He was hired
by NMU two months ago, but said related professional experience
prepared him for the World Cup challenge.

“I
worked at Lakeview for several years and learned a lot by watching
some of the other guys there,” Zorza said. “There are seminars and
workshops for everything these days, including ice management, but
most of us learn by watching and doing it ourselves. The hands-on
training is what’s most valuable.”

The
veteran – Perroud – has been driving the Zamboni at NMU for about
17 years. She said speedskating requires an extremely smooth surface.
The ISU recommended they run the Zamboni at a slower speed to avoid
leaving tire marks that might rattle the long, thin, sensitive blades
passing over.

“There
was a lot of work involved in getting ready for an event of this
magnitude, but I felt fantastic when it was finished,” she added.
“When people break records, it’s a big thing for people who do ice.
It makes you feel like you’ve helped contribute in some way to their
accomplishment.”

Even
after the World Cup ended and the Berry
lay vacant, the NMU employees
did not have time to rest on their laurels and soak in the accolades.
They had 12 hours to transform the ice back into a regulation hockey
rink. While precision and teamwork are vital in speedskating – particularly
in the relay events that thrilled crowds last weekend – they are
also the qualities that helped Klumb, Perroud, Schwemin and Zorza
pull off the event.

The NMU crew seemed relatively unfazed,
despite close scrutiny from the ISU and the heated pace at which they
had to complete the work. In what could have been a real pressure-cooker
environment, they remained cool as … what else? Ice.